The emergence of low-cost and easy-to-use Unmanned Aerial Systems (UAS), commonly referred to as drones, has lead to an explosion of their use for numerous applications. In particular, these new platforms have enabled new imaging and earth remote sensing technologies and applications previously unavailable due to the high cost of manned aircraft or satellites. This workshop will bring together academics, industry representatives, and domain specialists to share perspectives on this rapidly evolving topic.

Since its inception in 2016, STRATUS went from a one-day, to two-day, and now a three-day event. We have expanded the workshops reach to include entities from all over Western New York. STRATUS 2019 is now a collaborative effort including some of the region's top universities. The general organizing committee is made up of members from:

• University at Buffalo
• Cornell University
• SUNY Environmental Science and Forestry (ESF)
• Rochester Institute of Technology
• Hobart and William Smith Colleges
• IEEE Region 1 Director Involvement (22 section in NE USA)

Workshop Topics (UAS-Related)

• Tutorials
• Remote Sensing
• 3D and Multi-view Imaging
• Analysis Techniques
• Integrated Environmental Monitoring, Analysis and Modeling
• Applications and Algorithms
• Imaging Systems
• Platforms
• Sensors
• Technologies
• Prizes for best student paper and poster

Keynote Speaker:

Dr. Sally Rockey

Executive Director of the Foundation for Food and Agriculture Research (FFAR)

Dr. Sally Rockey became the inaugural Executive Director of the Foundation for Food and Agriculture Research (FFAR) in September 2015. Prior to this role, Dr. Rockey was a leader in Federal research, overseeing the operations of the extramural programs in both agriculture and biomedicine. She spent 19 years with the U.S. Department of Agriculture where she held a number of positions within the Cooperative State Research, Education, and Extension Service. Very early in her career she became the head of the competitive grants program, overseeing the extramural grants process and portfolio. In her last few years with USDA she was the Chief Information Officer, applying her breadth of government knowledge to IT. From there she moved to and spent 11 years with the National Institutes of Health. As Deputy Director for Extramural Research, Dr. Rockey oversaw the operations of the largest Federal extramural research program and led groundbreaking initiatives and activities that have and will have a lasting positive impact on the research community.

Dr. Rockey received her Ph.D. in Entomology from the Ohio State University and did postgraduate work at University of Wisconsin prior to joining the government. She has devoted her career to improving people’s lives through research and will continue her mission by seeing FFAR become an essential component of the scientific enterprise. For Full-Length Bio Click HERE .

Keynote Speaker:

Dr. Steven J. Thomson

National Program Leader, USDA NIFA

Dr. Steven J. Thomson is a National Program Leader with the USDA National Institute Food and Agriculture (NIFA). He engages Universities, other federal agencies, and industry to provide national leadership in Capacity and Competitive Grant programs. He leads four programs that focus on engineering processes to improve systems relevant to agriculture. These research, education, and outreach activities include precision agriculture, robotics (NSF collaborative), cyber-physical systems (NSF collaborative), and instrumentation and controls. Dr. Thomson co-leads two programs that involve youth farm safety and access to assistive technologies by disabled farmers and veterans. Dr. Thomson has research background in statistics, aerial application of crop protection materials, irrigation management, water balance and crop modeling, decision support systems, agricultural safety, sensor systems and electronics, remote sensing, unmanned aerial systems, and precision agriculture. He has been involved in research, extension, and instruction both as a faculty member at Virginia Tech, where he received the Alpha Epsilon Award for his Research and Extension program, and (more recently) as Research Lead Scientist with the USDA ARS.

All Tutorials are Monday, February 25th (Register below)

Tutorial 1 8am-10:30am: Click here for full description

Chris Durell, Dir. of Business Development for Remote Sensing at Labsphere, N. Sutton, NH.
"Introduction to UAV Radiometry and Reflectance"

Tutorial 2 11am-1:30pm: Click here for full description

Angad Singh, Trainer Specialist and Technical Sales Engineer for Pix4D (North America) in San Francisco, CA.
"UAS-Focused Photogrammetry and Mapping with Pix4D"

Tutorial 3 2:30pm - 5pm: Click here for full description

Dr. Brent Bartlett Co-Founder & President of BeamIO in Washington, DC.
"Creating automated processing workflows for multi-band UAS data using the Algorithm Toolkit"

Call for Abstract & Presentation (OR) 4-pg Paper & Presentation

Click here for the Call in pdf form.

Workshop 4x6-inch Postcard Flyer

A 4x6-inch postcard advertisement flyer, in pdf form, can be found HERE

Registration is now CLOSED

You can pay with online bank account, debit or credit card, or PayPal.

Onsite registration will also be available with (onsite) registration fees payable by cash or check. Fees enable attendance to all sessions and include lunch.

Thanks to the generous financial support from the IEEE GRS Society, Hyspex, Headwall Photonics, Harris Corporation, Beam IO, and EagleHawk, registration fees are:

• General Registration: Early ($150), Late ($200) (see registration page for definition of early and late)
• Registration includes food and beverage (i.e., breakfast, lunch, coffee breaks, food/drink at social gathering)
• Student Registration Starts at $50. See registration page for details.

Paper/Abstract Submission is Now Closed

The workshop will have a two-track submission process for program consideration. You can either submit an abstract (plus presentation) or a 4-page paper (plus presentation). See details below.

The first track is for workshop participants who desire to share their work during the conference without submitting a full paper. This first track will require an abstract only for program consideration.

The second track is for authors wishing to present a full paper to be published in the proceedings, which will be archived in the IEEE Xplore Digital Library. A four-page IEEE style paper is required and will undergo a full peer-review process for those wishing to seek this option.

Abstracts are limited to 250 words. For those authors submitting a full paper please use the templates as described here .

Program will include both oral and poster sessions, as well as breaks for networking, browsing exhibits and live demonstrations.

Awards

There will be student awards for best presentation, paper, and poster.

Program Committee

• General Chairs, Emmett Ientilucci Digital Image and Remote Sensing (RIT, Rochester) and Chris Renschler Department of Geography University at Buffalo
• Technical Program Chair, Bahram Salehi SUNY College of Env. Sci. and Forestry (Syracuse)
• Financial Chair, Don McKeown Digital Image and Remote Sensing (RIT, Rochester)
• Sponsor and Exhibits Chair, Peter Spacher Physics (Hobart and William Smith Colleges, Geneva)
• Tutorials Chair, Emmett Ientilucci Digital Image and Remote Sensing (RIT, Rochester)
• Local Arrangements Chair Colleen McManhon Digital Image and Remote Sensing (RIT, Rochester)

General Organizing Committee

A core group of diverse individuals that meet regularly to discuss general organizational aspects of the workshop. Participants are from the University at Buffalo, Cornell University, SUNY Environmental Science and Forestry (Syracuse), Rochester Institute of Technology (RIT), Hobart and William Smith Colleges (Geneva, NY), and IEEE Region 1 out of Binghamton, NY.

• Univ. at Buffalo: Chase Murray, Asst. Prof, Industrial and Sys. Eng
• Univ. at Buffalo: Chris Renschler, Assoc. Prof, Dept. of Geography
• Univ. at Buffalo: Erasmus Oware, Asst. Prof, Dept. of Geology
• Univ. at Buffalo: Karthik Dantu, Asst. Prof, Dept. of Comp. Sci
• Cornell Univ.: Jim Meyers, Viticulture Specialist, Cornell Coop. Extension
• Cornell Univ.: Quirine Ketterings, Prof, Dept. of Animal Science
• SUNY Env. Sci. & Forestry: Bahram Salehi, Asst. Prof, Env. Res. Eng.
• SUNY Env. Sci. & Forestry: Lindi Quackenbush, Assoc. Prof, Env. Res. Eng.
• SUNY Env. Sci. & Forestry: Eddie Bevilacqua, Prof, Forest & Natural Res Mgmt.
• Hobart and William Smith Colleges: Peter Spacher, Department of Physics
• IEEE Region 1 / Binghamton: Vince Socci, Region 1 Director (22 Sections in NE USA)
• RIT: Carl Salvaggio, Prof, Digital Image and Remote Sensing Lab
• RIT: Jan van Aardt, Prof, Digital Image and Remote Sensing Lab
• RIT: Don McKeown, Distinguished Researching, Digital Image and Rem. Sensing Lab
• RIT: John Kerekes , Prof. and Director of the Digital Image and Remote Sensing Lab
• RIT: Kristina Owens, Assoc. VP of Government and Community Relations, RIT
• RIT: Tim Bauch, Lab Engineer, Digital Image and Remote Sensing Lab
• RIT: Colleen McMahom, Sr. Staff Assistant, Digital Image and Remote Sensing Lab
• RIT: Nina Raqueno, Asst. Scientist, Digital Image and Remote Sensing Lab

Contact

Please direct any questions about the STRATUS Workshop to Emmett Ientilucci (Rochester) or Chris Renschler (Buffalo).